Carterton Swimming Club coach Russell Geange admits being caught by surprise at the excellent results achieved by his squad at the first four sessions of the Wellington short-course championships held at the Kilbirnie pool last weekend.
Two gold, seven silver and two bronze was the medal haul for Carterton, and thaton a restricted training regime of just the one session per day.
"You never quite know how they will go at this early stage of the season and, yes, I was surprised at what we came up with," Geange said yesterday. "It makes you wonder what will happen when we really get serious."
Particularly pleasing for Geange was the form shown by Bella Biggs, Joseph Hammond and Taylah Mawson in the testing 400m individual medley.
Biggs, 11, won gold in her age group with a time of 5min 44.07s which eclipsed the former Wairarapa record of 5min 47.64s set by Ashley McDougall in November 2000. Hammond, 15, placed second in 4min 46.41s and while Mawson, 12, wasn't among the medal winners in her 400m she also turned in a strong performance. She did, though, win gold in the 200m breaststroke.
Biggs also set provisional Wairarapa records with her second in the 50m butterfly in 34.40s and her second in the 50m backstroke in 35.42s. The old butterfly record was the 34.48s recorded by Lisa Hansen in February 2005 and the old backstroke record was the 35.75s registered by Katie Brasell in October 2001.
Carterton medal winners:
Bella Biggs: Gold in 400m individual medley in 5.44.07, silver in 50m backstroke in 35.42, silver in the 50m butterfly in 34.40, silver in the 200m freestyle in 2.25.82, silver in the 400m freestyle in 5.01.52, bronze in the 200m breaststroke in 3.13.34, Taylah Mawson: Gold in 100m breaststroke in 1.23.27, silver in 200m breaststroke in 2.55.95. Joseph Hammond: Silver in 400m individual medley in 4.46.41, silver in 200m breaststroke in 2.35.07, bronze in 100m individual medley in 1.04.64.
